Shoots, Splashes, and Bashes

Blazing sun, crashing waves, refreshing wind; soft sand, pesky seagulls, slimy seaweed; and we can't forget…

"Swimsuits~! Get your swimsuits here." From the van, Camille pulled out a rack full of various swim- and summer-wear for her new clothing line.

"But the sun is too bright today!"

"Crap, my shoulders are getting red already."

"Stop complaining…" I muttered under my breath as I rubbed the back of my neck. Good old So-Cal for its 24/7 sunny weather… My two co-workers, Gil and Landa, ran for cover underneath the shadow of a palm tree. I wanted to do the same but Camille shoved some luggage into my arms.

"Aw, you guys are such babies. We're going to be here for at least eight hours, you know?" Camille applied sunscreen on herself and placed her sunglasses on her head. "Now grab your bags, we're moving to the dressing rooms."

"But that's so far!" whined Landa.

"Well, princess, this was the closest parking. Not my fault everyone thought it was a fantastic day to go to the beach as well." Our manager/photographer/boss locked her vehicle, grabbed her things and strode down the parking lot.

I passed the two their things and we made our merry way down to work.

"I really hope we're not going into the water. My hair is totally going to get ruined. I mean I have another thing later today so I still need to have it nice…"

While the two was walking ahead of me, Landa was just blabbering nonstop to the Prussian. Too bad for her, he was busy listening to whatever he listens to on his iPod. Me on the other hand thought that since they worked longer together, I felt that I shouldn't intrude. In the midst of me fixing the strap of the bag as it was cutting into my shoulder, for a split second, I saw the younger girl glimpse back at me with narrowed eyes. A pit of bad feeling came over me. Sheesh… I haven't properly met her until now. The first and last time I've seen her was back in that hall at the agency. This second impression wasn't any better than the first.

After about ten minutes, the line to the dressing rooms finally shortened so that the three of us could get changed. Landa, being the pro she was, swiftly swapped her outfit into one of a frilly yellow summer dress. An air of arrogance lingered about her as she walked past me. Well, it was either that or her overbearing perfume. Relieved that I was the last one in line, I casually went into the room she was in. I held my breath for a moment. It was the perfume.

Once I got my lungs to work again, I pulled up my summer dress in front of me and bit my lower lip. It was a flowy, light pastel blue dress that probably ended up at my knees. This was nicer, and looser, than what I was used to. The things I get forced to wear… Before I started to get second thoughts, I quickly undressed and pulled it over my head. I adjusted it so it fit properly and finally decided to look into the mirror. While tugging at the spaghetti strap, I turned around to make the final adjustments. I'm going to get so sunburned… I rubbed my arms while getting depressed at the thought of stinging skin.

Oi, you're taking too long.

From the top of the dressing room door, I saw some pale hair sticking up. I rolled my eyes. "I was just about done anyway." I grabbed my clothes and stepped out.

I almost ran into Gil, who was busy fixing his sunglasses on top of his head. He was wearing swimming trunks and a button up shirt, except it was unbuttoned and I blushed at the sight of his bare chest that was only a mere couple of inches from my face. He glanced down and smirked. "That's not a bad look on you. But not as awesome as mine."

"…Yeah yeah." I shrugged him off. My skin tingled as my hair swept over my shoulders. Sleeves… I need sleeves…

"Hey."

I turned around. "What?" My scowl melted when I saw for a brief moment that he had a genuinely concerned look on his face.

He patted on his shoulder. "That scar's going to show up."

How did I miss that? I put my shirt over it. "It's like three years old. It's not as bad as it used to be."

"She doesn't use Photoshop, you know." He walked over to me.

"We'll just have to improvise then." I turned on my heels to avoid him. When my eyes adjusted to the beaming sunlight, I saw that Landa was staring intently at us.

"…See, you were taking too long," he muttered under his breath. He straightened his composure and walked out.

"I heard you the first time..." I let out a sigh and hurried after him.

It took only five minutes for Camille to pick out a location and get everything set up. I wanted to say that this was probably her favorite site since she knew what she was doing, but who knows.

Our manager flicked on her camera. "Okay folks, go stand by that huge rock. Try not to get wet by the waves. I'll try to warn you each time."

I walked a step behind the two since I wasn't sure of where to stand. Landa, being the shortest out of us, stood on top of a small ledge while Gil positioned himself near her. I decided to stand by the Prussian and made sure my surely-improvised ponytail properly covered up my scar.

The Camille looked up from her camera. "Nana, please move closer to him. And put one hand on your hip."

While I did as I was told, I heard Landa scoff under her breath. It might have been the wind messing with my hearing but it sounded like she called me a 'noob'. Seriously… I made a light smile right before the shutter went off. Then again. And again. And again.

"Hey…" I confronted Gil while we were on a quick water break.

"What?" He pressed his water bottle against his neck.

"How do you get yourself to smile when nothing interesting is going on?"

He just smirked. "I guess you're not awesome enou—Gah!"

I removed my icy, cold bottle from his bare stomach region. "Real question, real answer."

He glared at me and then sighed. "I just keep telling myself of how awesome I am." He rubbed his abdomen several times to generate some heat. "Works every time."

Right… I'm sorry I'm not as much of a narcissist as you.

Several more shots and poses later, we changed outfits and locations. Since the tides weren't very high today, she had us to take off our sandals and go closer to the water. I fancied the blue plaid shorts and white transparent blouse that she had me wear this time. It wasn't so bad. Using this as a motivator, I was able to smile a little better this time.

"Nice job guys~." Camille grinned at us. "I want a few more shots but I'll give you five." She jogged over to her laptop hiding under the shade of the beach umbrella.

"I need to go take a piss." Gil yawned and walked off in the direction of the restrooms.

Landa abruptly pass me by before I could head to the cooler for another drink. I didn't go very far before my left toe struck a buried rock while my right foot failed to support me as I ended up slipping on a pile of washed up seaweed. I fell onto the wet sand, causing me to ruin the sleeves of the blouse. Where did that wad of seaweed come from?

"Nana, watch out!"

In the instant I looked behind me, a wave suddenly swept over me. When it receded, I coughed up seawater and tried to get myself resituated.

"Oh dear." Camille helped me up. "The designer is going to give me an earful later."

My eyes stung from the saltwater and my body couldn't stop shaking. "I-I-I'm so-rry…"

She guided me to the shaded area. "Why don't you sit out for the next one so you can recover?"

"I th-think I'll do that…" I grabbed my bottle and tried to rinse the salty taste out of my mouth.

Camille picked up her camera with one hand and tossed me a bundle with the other. "Get changed into the next thing while you're at it." She called for the two to return to their spots to continue the shoot.

Stupid waves… I sighed in dismay and made my way to the dressing room. It probably took me ten minutes alone to figure out if I should wear the next thing or not. It was a simple black two-piece swimsuit. Feeling the time pressing down on me more and more, I quickly put it on and cloaked myself with a towel. I didn't know why I was still here. The 'Beauty and the Beast' line ended a week ago. I sensed that it was Gilbert's doings to torture me more than I deserved. He's going to pay for this…

I darted out of the dressing room so that I could get into the safety of the shades. It's been almost two hours since we got here and I could feel the sunscreen wearing off. The surprise water attack didn't help with that. With a couple of more yards to go, I felt a blunt but light object bounce off of my head.

"My bad, my bad~!"

I stopped in my tracks. That voice… Jogging up to me was Yong Soo, who came to retrieve the beach ball that hit my head just now. Behind him I saw Feliciano, Toni, and surprisingly Ludwig. I drew the towel closer to me. "What are you guys doing here?"
"It was a great day to go to the beach." The Korean grinned and tossed the ball up and down. "It's not fair that only you and Gil get to go."

"Ve~ good afternoon, bella." Feliciano scampered over to us.

Toni ran up and hugged me around the waist. "We saw you get hit by a big wave earlier."

Gloom came back over me. "Don't remind me…"

"Were you okay?" Ludwig asked.

I nodded. "I made it out… So you have a day off today or something?" The German was wearing military green swimming trunks and a black tank top. I caught myself from gawking at his physique and shifted my eyes to the sky.

"Ja. The senior members are having an event so the newer recruits have the day off." He looked uneasily at me and then at the water. "I would have liked to sit at home and relaxed for a change but Feliciano convinced me to come along."

Feli patted, or rather smacked, him in the back playfully. "You need to have some fun too, Ludy~."

I smiled at the German. "He tends to hold that kind of power."

Yong Soo held out the beach ball. "Do you want to play with us when you're done, daze?"

I glanced over at the busy crew. "I might have some time in-between the shoots."

"Oh oh," Toni raised his hand excitedly, "let's make it like a game. We have to complete each activity in the time Nana has for break."

"So like time trial games?" Yong Soo asked him.

"Yep!" The little Spaniard cheered.

I laughed. "Well, let's start right now. I think I have five more minutes."

And so we began our first 'time trial' game of beach volleyball.

Camille let me continue to work a while after. We did several swimsuit shots and the fact that the others stopped to watch increased my forever feelings of embarrassment. But for some reason, something bad kept happening every other time. I don't know if it was just me being a klutz or what but no one seemed to have noticed any suspicious activities.

"You are going to ruin the shoot for all of us, amateur." Landa retorted. She then prompted to sip tea from the thermos she brought along with her.

"Well I'm sorry. I'm just having bad luck today or something…" I poked at the jell-o in my fruit cup. I got covered in sand during the last shot so I had to put my hair up in a bun for this next one. With the length and amount, it would take too long to wash it out.

Camille closed her laptop. "Bad luck or not, I can't let you soil any more of the clothes, got it?"

I sighed. "Yes ma'am." She was going to make me sit this one out too, probably.

"You should have her go on time-out again, Millie." The brunette kicked her legs back and forth in her seat.

"I guess." She got up and grabbed her DSLR, signaling that we were to get back to work. "But I'll give you one more chance."

So she still has hope in me… I smiled at her. "Thank you." I couldn't fail her this time. Clad in a short-sleeved hoodie under overall shorts and orange flip-flops, I got on standby under the dock.

"She'd better be telling the truth when she said this was the last one." Gil wiped his sunglasses clean and set them back into place. I saw that the tip of his ears and nose were getting red. The tone of his voice definitely said that he wanted to get this done and over with.

"I'm going to be late for a party because of all these retakes." Landa fluffed out her skirt and hopped on top of a rock.

Geez… Guilt-ridden, I told myself to make this the best and fastest one. I saw Feli and Toni waving at me from behind Camille. I smiled at them. I just had to keep them in mind to get me to smile more naturally.

"…Aaaaand… That's a wrap." The photographer let the camera hang around her neck and gave a quick round of applause. "Great job today."

"Finally!" Gilbert stretched out his arms. He rubbed his shoulder. "You better let me see those pictures before you publish them."

Camille scoffed. "So I could get your 'awesome seal of approval'?"

He gave her a thumbs-up. "Exactly." Without stopping to see her roll her eyes, he gathered his things and joined his brother over at their shaded area.

She's so patient with him… "I admire your ability to deal with him." I carefully stepped over small rocks to get to her.

She just laughed. "My boyfriend's the same way so it's pretty much natural for me."

"That's nice, I think." I undid my hair and returned the scrunchie to her.

She put it in her pocket. "Let's just say it's a good practice in tolerance. Anyway, you did better towards the end today. I think you're getting the hang of this."

"I guess." I rubbed the back of my neck. "But why are you still keeping me? I thought I was done after the other line."

"Oh, well," she glanced past me real quick and whispered into my ear, "you seem to have a better rating compared to Landa so I'm placing you guys together to see the new response."

I felt my cheeks flush red. "W-what?"

She grinned. A glimmer of mischief shone in her eyes. "Welcome to the competitive world." And at that, she left me to pack up her equipment.

"Competitive world..?" My words trailed off with the breeze that blew by. What rating? I don't even want to be here in the first place… Before I could get very far in my thoughts, a clothing hanger flew in my direction. I took that as a hint and quickly went to change out of the outfit so that I could return it to Camille. The simple combo of a v-neck shirt and shorts reminded me of how comfortable my own clothes were. After being satisfied and having said good bye to my manager, I finally went to join the others. They were building all sorts of sand sculptures ranging from the typical castle to a giant Gilbird.

"Hey guys—" I was suddenly drenched again from head to toe and a bucket went over my head.

"Hey!" I heard Yong Soo shout out.

I removed the container and looked behind me. I followed the imprinted footsteps up to the life guard tower. Landa scowled and stuck her tongue out at me and stormed off.

As I stopped Yong Soo from going after her, Ludwig handed me a towel. I thanked him and wiped my face but I couldn't take my eyes off of the girl.

"…Is she that jealous?"

Weak chapter is weak.

Heyoooooo it's been a while. A LONG while. I virtually had no time for myself once second semester started but luckily I had some time this spring break (despite traveling for four days) to work on this. I honestly ran out of motivation to really pick it up again but I do have enough ideas to push out a little at a time. I thought I'd never see the day I say this but Hetalia's kinda dying out for me (dun dun DUNNNN). I still love it but all the inactivity made me move on to another series. . . (*cough*Kagerou Project/Mekakucity Actors*cough*)

Anyway, I will still update my stories once in a blue moon. Thanks for sticking with me and I hope to see you around.

~Miracle

Ps. I just wanted to say a big HELLO to my new followers. I'm really grateful that you found interest in my work but I wanted to also apologize for the fact that you caught me during my inactivity period. But since I'm basically in review-mode in school and finished the yearbook, I may have more time to update my stories… Hmm… No promises though.